Kaiser Permanente has launched an Android mobile app that will allow 9 million Kaiser Permanente patients to access their own medical information anywhere in the world on mobile devices through Android mobile devices. They plan on introducing an iPhone app in the coming months.

The app will provide Kaiser Permanente patients with 24/7 access to lab results, diagnostic information, direct and secure email access to their doctors, and will also be able to order prescription refills. Kaiser Permanente patients have been able to email their doctors for five years, with more than 12 million evisits in 2011 alone. Kaiser Permanente expects that number to increase significantly with the new app and mobile-optimized site.

The Android app is available now in the Android Market at no charge. Users of other mobile devices can access the same set of care support tools at no charge through the new secure mobile-optimized member website, which is available through smart phone internet browsers.

“This is the future of health care. Health care needs to be connected to be all that it can be. This new level of connectivity is happening real time, and it is happening on a larger scale than anything like it in the world,” said George Halvorson, chairman and chief executive officer of Kaiser Permanente. “The fact that a Kaiser Permanente patient in an emergency room in Paris or Tokyo can simply pull out their mobile device and have immediate and current access to their own medical information is an evolutionary and revolutionary breakthrough for medical connectivity.”